Archive for February, 2009

It seems as though there have been a lot of events and various things that have happened since I’ve posted last, though I’ve not mentioned any of it on here. So I will cover various things that I’ve meant to write about in slightly less detail.

After the Star Wars game that I mentioned in my previous post, Giffy and an entourage of friends came down and picked me up to take me up to Waiterere. I stayed over the night and enjoyed the small amount of time that I had with my friends and my Sassa. The highlight for me was swimming in the ocean for the first time this summer. It was kinda overcast when we went out, but thankfully I was peer pressured into it. I love ocean swimming, but mostly only when the beaches are unpopulated by other people, except friends. So while I was a bit skeptical at first, the crashing waves and the presence of friends made it really fun.

I also celebrated my first ever Valentines this year, which turned out to be a relaxing and very lovely affair. In every previous year, I’ve been single come valentines day, so it was a real novelty for me. I’ve never really had anything against the occasion like many do, generally I didn’t even acknowledge it as it’s not really an event that single people get much out of. I mean sure, you can spend time with friends, give a valentine to a secret crush etc, but ultimately the kind of expressions and feelings associated with the day are most rewarding for those in an existing relationship.

I enjoyed being able to do a whole lot of little things to treat my special lady. And not big surprises all at once, but things that would reveal themselves over the course of the day. I also received some very sweet presents too and as I had no prior engagements that weekend, it was nice to be able to relax. It was the same weekend where Jenni linked to a page on http://www.asofterworld.com, which is the first time I’d come across it and I spent a couple of hours browsing through all the old posts. There’s something about the images that makes me really fond of it, but I can’t put my finger on what exactly at the moment.

I’ve auditioned for Stagecraft’s upcoming production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s easily my second favourite of Shakespeare’s comedies, after Twelfth Night, so I thought it would be fun to put my monkey back in the box that is stage acting and see what happens. It turned out that the Director was running group audition sessions which meant that I actually had *fun* at an audition! Usually auditions are tedious things where you need to prepare a random monologue and perform it cold in front of a scrutinising panel maybe consisting of director, producer and stage manager etc. This archaic form of auditioning is not really conducive to finding people who are best suited for a particular role, so I’m glad it was different.

I was a bit rusty at first and the passgaes chosen were not cut in any form, meaning they were fairly convoluted in places. I still had a lot of fun, especially since Grant and Regan were auditioning at the same time as me. Apparently they have 80 or so people lined up to audition for the show, so the director indicated that no one is guaranteed a role. This was also quite daunting as our audition group were talented, animated and as a whole, competent stage actors. That being said, there is still some hope for me getting role, as only about 20 of the 80 people auditioning were male, which means I’ve got better odds for being offered a role 🙂

We’re going to be trucking through the remaining filming of Winding City, starting this Sunday. I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing and while the projects’ been pretty cool, I’m looking forward to these first episodes being over and done with. The reason being is that we started in November when I liked my hair, but since then I’ve wanted to get rid of this long, annoying, and frankly unattractive do for a long time. I was a bit miffed that all 4 episodes of the show have been written as occurring on the same night, so I need to wait till all the filming is complete before I cut it off

Finally, here’s the intense awesomeness that is White Lion (maybe they are just called Lion?) doing the theme for the original Transformers movie. It’s a must see and must hear for it’s amazing hair metal-ness:

For over a year now, I’ve been involved in a monthly game of D20 Star Wars, Saga edition. We are playing through the Dawn of Defiance campaign as it’s being released, which is being facilitated by Luke (not to mention, being re-written as the adventures are often a little bit lame).

Because it’s D20 and because it can be quite fun, Luke puts a lot of effort into creating the various encounters, utilizing the many miniatures that our group has between us, as well as the library of floor tiles that Luke owns.

Our most recent game ran on the Saturday just past and our characters at this point were level 13. We’ve all been looking forward to the main encounter of this session for a long time as Luke was able to break out his AT-AT figure. It’s to the same scale as the other miniatures, so it’s absolutely gigantic. I share with you the map just before our characters erupted into the scene.

The Imperials didn't think we would be crazy enough to attempt a resuce of our ship if they stationed an AT-AT nearby!

It was a proud moment to have my Jedi character redirect one of the ordinance like laser blasts straight back at the thing. 🙂

The whole session was fun and the spaceship combat that ensued after this particular scene was badass. 🙂

Generally speaking, I don’t often recall my dreams much after the point where I wake up and prepare for any given day. I did have a dream last week which I recall part of relatively vividly.

I think for the most part it was inspired by having watched Almost Famous the night before at Movie Night. I was the new drummer for The Strokes and we were touring around bars. The rest of the band were really laid back and really supportive in showing me the ropes. I already new all the new songs but was still learning the old repertoire. Suddenly some kind of conflict broke out with another band present and it was decided to resolve the situation by having a rock off (naturally). Unfortunately, we had to play the old stuff so I stood back as the vocalist took over the percussion too. To be honest, it’s pretty weird, considering the fact that I’ve no idea what any of the band are like and only a rough idea what they look like.

I must say that it was a pretty sweet dream regardless, but it’s a perfect opportunity to bring up the fact that I recently added Room On fire, to my Strokes collection.

It’s the second Strokes album and was released (ages ago in October 2003). It’s an important album to mention as the single Reptilia is what sold me on the Strokes. Many will attest to the addictive quality of the killer guitar riffs that erupt from the beginning, right the way till the end of the track. The energy of which is matched by the steady but powerful rhythm section, the raspy, seething vocals give it an amazing edge that completes the package.

All that being said, I also love the other singles that were released from this Album at the time, 12:51 and The End Has No End.

I think what impresses me the most is that The Strokes have an amazing consistency of quality across all three of their album releases. I would like to say that Room on Fire is my favorite album they’ve released, but that’s only because it’s the one I’m listening to at the moment.

Looking at Is This It, I loved the tracks Take It Or Leave It, Hard To Explain, and Soma. Listening to First Impressions Of Earth, A whole bunch of tracks stand out (You Only Live Once, Ize Of The World and Electricityscape). I’m always impressed with a band where it’s hard for me to decide which album is the stand out, usually a band’s style is so liable to change as they are taken in different directions by new influences.

Not so with The Strokes. Far from stagnant when it comes to variety, it really goes to show that their is no point in changing a good thing, especially when that good thing is a rock styling which seems to span generations of fans.